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^•mm»m>*i i «)i.im»i TasmmiiTm-r< -pi i,i«mwmim iijuhthbii
Senator Inouye says breakthrough
near on gaming accord
By Tom Gardner
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) One final
hurdle is all that remains before the
Indian Regulatory Gaming Act
receives its first major revision since
Congress enacted it five years ago,
Sen. Daniel Inouye said on Monday.
"In my view, the parties are close,
very very close, to resolution," he
said in a speech to the National
Congress of American Indians. "I
believe that a breakthrough on the
last remaining issue, the scope of
Indian gaming, is close at hand."
Inouye, D-Hawaii, who chairs the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,
said the governors of states in which
tribes are seeking gaming compacts
had submitted their proposals and
they were being reviewed.
"Once that is resolved, I believe
that the whole package will somehow
mesh," he said.
Under the 1988 law, tribes in states
which permit any form of gambling,
including lotteries and parimutuel
betting on horse and dog races, may
seek to join with the state in a compact
that would allow gaming on their
reservations.
Some states have permitted tribes
to operate only a limited number of
slot machines and traditional Indian
games, while others have permitted
full-scale casinos.
That is the issue the remains to be
decided, Inouye said.
"As sovereign governments, tribal
governments may certainly qualify to
raise money through gambling, just
as many states have lotteries," he
said. "They are sovereign, you are
sovereign," he added to applause.
"Sovereigns should deal with
sovereigns and that's what they're
doing."
Inouye told the audience of about
500 meeting this week at the Sparks
Nugget that after long being largely
ignored, Indian concerns were being
heard on Capitol Hill.
"There was a time when Indians
thought the only way they could be
represented was to have a non-Indian
for an attorney," he said.
But in this year's discussions of
reservation casinos, he said tribal leaders
and Indian attorneys won the admiration
of state and federal officials.
"They learned more about Indian
gaming and Indian country than they
ever thought they would," he said.
Less than two decades ago, Inouye
said the slow process of mailing
correspondence produced mistakes in
Congress.
"Washington did not have access to
your knowledge, your experience," he
said. "Fifteen years ago, Washington
was distant. Sincere, but ill-informed
people would make decisions that
involved your daily lives.
' 'You have found the ways to make
your voices heard. Today, the nation's
capital is no longer a distant land.
You have become, as you were in the
early days of this nation, a force to be
reckoned with and, believe me,
nobody takes you for granted any
more," he said.
Eurocentric concepts harm Native people/ Page 5
Environmental lab tour led by Native American scientists/ Page 6
Red Lake Fisheries to pay $1,644,626.00 in fish bonuses/ Page 4
Press wishes good luck to Mel at Lac du Flambeau/ Page 4
Ignoring the negative prevents positive/ Page 4
Red Lake: How the landscape happened/ Pages 1 & 5
Voice of the Anishinabeg
i
Fifty Cents
Called tO ACCOUnt Hit by a barrage of potentially costly
malpractice litigation, CPA firms are working to change laws.
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All
Founded in 19BB Volume 5 Issue 23 December 3, 1993
1
A weekly
Copyright, The Ophwre
1993
By Gafl Marks Jarvis
Pioneer Press Staff Writer
It's enough to make CPAs quake at their
computers. Nearly 2,000 past and present
partners in the Deloitte & Touche certified
public accounting firm could be forced to
come up with millions of dollars from their
ownpockets to pay for the $ 1 billion failure
of Minneapolis-based Midwest Federal
Savings and Loan.
The Resolution Trust'Corporation-the
federal agency dealing with S&L carnage-
-is trying to sue the partners for work done
sevenyearsagobyacoupleofauditorsfrom
the Minneapolis office of Connecticut-
basedDeloitte&Touche. Thegovernment
claims tfiat iftheauditorsfromDeloitte had
been doing their job right in 1985 and
1986, S&L regulators would have known
Midwest Federal was insolvent and could
have stepped in soon enough to save taxpayers from the financial mess.
Someone other than taxpayers should
pay for the disaster, the RTC reasons.
Among its nominees: the CPA partners
who reaped financial benefit from the
audits-even those who never knew about
the audits, never set foot in their firm's
Minneapolis office, and never heard of
Mdwest Federal or Hal Greenwood, its
former chairman who now is imprisoned
for fraud.
The suit is an accountant's worst nightmare. And it comes at a time when the
accounting profession already is panicky
about an unprecedented number of malpractice suits, not only by the RTCbut also
by plaintiffs who claim they were hurt by
securities fraud in other cases. As a result
ofallthe litigation, CPAsareattemptingto
get laws changed in various ways on the
federal and state levels, soboth accounting
firms andtheirpartners will belessvulnerable than they have been.
Current claims against the nation's six
largest accountingfirms, known as theBig
Six, total about $30 billion, according to
inforrnationthefirmsprovidedtotheSecu-
ritiesandExchangeCommissionrecently.
That is more than 20 times the permanent
capital available within the firms, they
said The six are Arthur Andersen, Coo-
pers&Lybrand,Deloitte&Touche, Ernst
&Young,KPMGPeatMarwickandPrice
Waterhouse.
If courts hearing the various cases should
grant all those claims, the average Big Six
partner could face a $3.8 million personal
hit, the CPA firms said While the liability
issue affects only partners, that is no small
number in big firms. There are 7,864
partners in the Big Six, with an average
salary of $212,000. At stake for those
subjecttosuitsarelifesavings, homes, cars,
kids' college educations and retirement
funds.
Many accountants have been taking action to protect their assets. The big joke in
the profession right now is that divorce is
out of the question for CPAs because
everything is in their spouses' names, says
Tom Sherman, a partner in Coopers &
Lybrand Butthegrowingwaveoflawsuits
is no laughing matter to accounting firms.
Sherman is leading a group ofMinnesota
Account/See Page 3
■M
Red Lake: How the landscape happened
By Robert C. Melchoir
Analysis of water well log data has
given us a reasonable picture ofthe most
recent glaciations that affected the Red
Lake region. Estimates of the overall
number of glaciations that covered the
area during the ice ages suggest as many
as 16 separate ice sheets. We have little
information about the earlier ones however, because their deposits have often
been eroded away, are buried under
more recent deposits and because there
are few well borings which penetrate
the entire thickness of glacial material.
The deposits ofthe most recent glaciations, coveringaperiodof the last 75,000
years orso are more accessible. They are
either exposed at the surface, or are within
range of normal water well drilling.
To gain an insight as to what these
deposits mean, it is useful to examine
how a glacier erodes, transports, and
deposits rock debris. Figure 1 shows a
glacier in equilibrium. The ice is melting back at its terminus at the same rate
as newiceflows in to replace it. Glaciers
in thi s condition show no net movement
either forward orback. Because melting
thins the ice near the margin, the pressure on the basal layers near the terminus is reduced and flow caused by deformation is slower in this region.
Faster flowing ice from upstream in
the thicker parts ofthe glacier is thrust
over the slower ice near the front. Rock
debris trapped in the ice rides up to the
surface of the glacier along fracture
planes and is released by seasonal melting. Over the years, melted out debris
can accumulate to considerable thicknesses on the top ofthe glacier as thrust
ing near the terminus continues. This
debris is called ablation moraine and is
common on most glaciers whose termini are in temperate climates. The modern Tailbacks glacier in Alaska for example, has a surface covering of ablation moraine thick enough to support a
spruce forest over 200 years old.
Because of seasonal melting on the
ice surface, meltwater streams erode
and carry some ofthe ablation moraine
rock debris to the front ofthe ice where
it is deposited as outwash. Otherparts of
the ablation moraine slump and slide
down the ice's surface to accumulate as
a ridge at the margin ofthe ice called a
terminal moraine. These types of deposits
have meltwater involved in their deposi-
Landscape/See Page 5
Photos by Denise Dearly
A Delegation of native people (in Washington, D.C.) prayed for the next 500 years and the seventh generation.
Some ofthe people present included Thomas Bcnyaca, Dr. Anne Medicine, Arvol & Carol Looking Horse, and
Denise Dearly.
Hennepin County offers 'peanuts' for new
Native American detox center
Congress passes courts bill
Reprinted with permissionfrom: Indian
Country Today
By Bunty Anquoe
WASHINGTON- Legislation to
strengthen and increase funding for
financially- strapped tribal courts has
finallypassedCongress. TheHouseand
Senate approved a bill Saturday that
elevates the current BIA tribal courts
program to a top-level" Office ofTribal
Justice Suport" that would administer
$50 million per year in base funding for
the approximately 170 tribal courts.
The measure now awaits President
Clenton's signature to become law. Sen.
John McCain, R- Ariz., a primary
sponsor ofthe bill, said he was pleased
Congress and tribal governments have
finally been able to reach agreement on
the legislation.
" It has been nearley six years since the
Committee on Indian Affairs began the
process of developing legislation to assist
Indian tribal governments in the
development and operation of justice
systems," he said " Having encountered
great difficulty in reaching a consensus
withboth theHouseandtribal governments,
I'm pleased to have finally resolved all
differences and produced a bill which
moves the federal government and tribal
governments in the right direction."
The newly-created courts office would
provide up to $7 million in training and
technical assistance each year, conduct
a tribal justice system needs survey and
direct research and studies of tribal
judicial operations.
It would also serve as an information
clearinghouse that would provide
infoemation on tribal codes and court
decisions.
The bill authorizes $50 million in
base support funding for the next six
years that could be used for expenses
such as personnel salaries, reporting,
records management, acquisition of law
libraries, computer research, revision of
tribal codes and rules of procedures and
facilities construction or renovation.
The bill also alows tribes the option of
eithercontractingdirecUywiththecourts
office or participating in a tribal judicial
conference which would then contract
with the BIA.
Two or more tribes could form a
judicial conference and could receive up
to $500,000 per yearfor administration
costs. The legislation does not limit the
number of conferences.
Ajudicial conference would aid tribes
in developing tribal court operations
and could assume any or all ofthe duties
ofthe BIAtribal courts office at tribal
discretion. Under the bill, the Interior
Secretary would treat such conferences
as tribal organizations and al locate grants
or enter into contracts with them as a
means of direct assistance.
In previous congressional hearings,
tribal leaders have supported the
voluntary nature of the judicial
conferences idea. conference
membership is up to each tribe.
Tribal leaders and court judges have
said that Indian justice systems are
plagued by insufficient fimding and are
thus unable to cope with increased case
loads and this lack of resources, they
say, make it dificult to secure and retain
judges and other court personnel.
"It's really going to benefit tribal
courts," she said, "we've always had our
hands tied every year worrying about
whether there'll be funding for us or
not."
In 1993, the BIA Branch of Judicial
Services had a $ 12.9 million operating
budget
An amendment attached to the Senate
version ofthe bill by Sen. Slade Gorton,
R-Wash., to require a one-year
congressional study on federal court
review of tribal court decisions was
dropped. The senator has been a vocal
critic of tribal court authority under the
1968 Indian Civil Rights Act.
The U.S. Comission on Civil Rights
issued a report in 1991 detailing
problems with tribal court enforcement
of the Indian Civil Rights Act but
attributed difficulties to "the failure of
the United States to provide proper
funding for tribal judicial systems."
Sen. McCain said the "overdue"
legislation "finally sets tribal and federal
governments on the right course."
By Gary Blair
For nearly a year now there has been
talk in the Minneapolis Native American community about plans for an
"Indian" operated and controlled
detoxification center. Interest for such
a facility was generated by reports and
most recently the findings of a state
investigation into client abuse that
forced the closing of Hennepin
county's old detox center over a year
ago.
Within weeks of their detox closing,
county officials were quick to try and
find a way to divert the criticism from
the Indian community about the client
abuse. It was at this point that the
county approached the New Visions
Chemical Dependency Treatment Program for Native Americans and asked
if they were interested in the idea of
operating an Indian detox facility.
The offer wasn't anything new. Over
ten years ago, New Visions used to
operate the old south side detox center
that closed when the county moved
most of their detox services to the
1800 Chicago Avenue site.
For the most part, New Visions'
board of directors has remained silent
about their plans to open such a facility. In fact, only until recently had
New Visions been willing to admit
that they had been meeting with county officials. However, the PRESS has
learned that the county's offer for
such a facility has now fallen short
and may have caused another negative turn of events for Native Americans in need of chemical dependency
services in Minneapolis.
Joe Estrada, a board member for
New Visions, told the PRESS this
week,' 'Gary, I want you to look at the
contract they're offering us. They're
trying to give us 'peanuts' to operate a
detox.'' New Visions had been planning to hold a community meeting to
announce the opening ofthe new Indian detox center, but their efforts to
put together a secret deal with Hennepin County has now turned into an
embarassment. Instead, they plan to
hold a community meeting soon to
discuss the problems they now face
with the funding recently offered by
the county.
Members of the Native American
Coalition for Civil Rights (NACCR),
a group formed to address the detox
client abuse, had earlier cautioned
that something like this might happen
if New Visons tried such a move as
this.
When Hennepin County first approached New Visions with their offer
for the Indian operated detox, those
involved in addressing the abuse issue
were angered when they learned that
the county's proposal did not include
any offer of accountability for the
abuse Some vowed to have no further
involvement with the county until the
client abuse reports were fully addressed and charges were brought.
Within days people who had aligned
themselves with the efforts ofNACCR
started to pull away from the organi-
DetOX/ See Page 7
St. Croix Chippewa open new group home
HERTEL, Wis. -The St. Croix Tribe
Group Home in Hertel, Wisconsin,
officially opened on Wednesday, November 17, with an Open House hosted by the staff. Tribal leaders called
the opening of the group home a
cause for celebration and a new beginning for the tribe.
The Ojibway name for the Group
Home is "Abinooji Wakaigan" meaning "New Beginnings". According to
Bob Coombs, Manager of Clinical Services for the home. "Our future as a
people depends upon the preservation
of our cultural heritage. The future belongs to our children."
The St. Croix Tribe Group Home is an
eight bed Group Foster Care for Children facility. It provides a safe environment for boys and girls in crisis, while
offering them a full range of cultural/
spiritual care and activities, educational testing and tutoring, recreational activities, family counseling services and
vocational/occupational counseling. All
i
staff of the home are licensed and certi-
fiedchildcaretechnicians. "Thequality
of our staff is second to none." says Ron
Knobbe, Executive Director.
The small size of the new home is a plus,
according to Knobbe. "Having a small
number of residents permits us to work
individually with each of them That way
nobody gets lost in the shuffle."
Both Native American and non-Native American children are eligible to
receive care at the St. Croix Tribe Home.
"Learning each other'scultural heritage
goes a long way toward developing a
deep respect for cultural diversity," says
Knobbe. "Many of the crises young
tribal members experience arise because ofa lack of understanding among
cultures." Learning to celebrate life in
each individual is the basis of the entire
program at the St. Croix Tribe Group
Home, Knobbe asserts."
Cooperation among five diverse enti-
ties-the Bureau oflndian Affairs (BIA),
the Indian Health Service (IHS), the St.
I
Croix ChippewaofWisconsin,the State
of Wisconsin and the State of Wisconsin Counties Social Services Department-was necessary for the home to
become a reality. Further cooperation
between the tribe and government agencies will be ongoing: the home is officially
sponsored by the SL Croix Tribal Council
and the SL Croix Social Services Department/Family Resource Center.
The opening of the St. Croix Tribe
Group Home reflects the St. Croix
Chippewas' optimism about the future.
"Our children are tomorrow's leaders.
The new Group Home is an investment
in the future of all children," says Bob
Coombs. "Our chi ldren are our real new
beginning."
The St. Croix Tribe Group Home is
located next to the St. Croix Tribal
Headquarters, one mile west of Hertel,
Wisconsin, on Wisconsin State Highway 70. For more information call
Ron Knobbe, Executive Director, at
715-349-7711.

^•mm»m>*i i «)i.im»i TasmmiiTm-r< -pi i,i«mwmim iijuhthbii
Senator Inouye says breakthrough
near on gaming accord
By Tom Gardner
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) One final
hurdle is all that remains before the
Indian Regulatory Gaming Act
receives its first major revision since
Congress enacted it five years ago,
Sen. Daniel Inouye said on Monday.
"In my view, the parties are close,
very very close, to resolution," he
said in a speech to the National
Congress of American Indians. "I
believe that a breakthrough on the
last remaining issue, the scope of
Indian gaming, is close at hand."
Inouye, D-Hawaii, who chairs the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,
said the governors of states in which
tribes are seeking gaming compacts
had submitted their proposals and
they were being reviewed.
"Once that is resolved, I believe
that the whole package will somehow
mesh," he said.
Under the 1988 law, tribes in states
which permit any form of gambling,
including lotteries and parimutuel
betting on horse and dog races, may
seek to join with the state in a compact
that would allow gaming on their
reservations.
Some states have permitted tribes
to operate only a limited number of
slot machines and traditional Indian
games, while others have permitted
full-scale casinos.
That is the issue the remains to be
decided, Inouye said.
"As sovereign governments, tribal
governments may certainly qualify to
raise money through gambling, just
as many states have lotteries," he
said. "They are sovereign, you are
sovereign," he added to applause.
"Sovereigns should deal with
sovereigns and that's what they're
doing."
Inouye told the audience of about
500 meeting this week at the Sparks
Nugget that after long being largely
ignored, Indian concerns were being
heard on Capitol Hill.
"There was a time when Indians
thought the only way they could be
represented was to have a non-Indian
for an attorney," he said.
But in this year's discussions of
reservation casinos, he said tribal leaders
and Indian attorneys won the admiration
of state and federal officials.
"They learned more about Indian
gaming and Indian country than they
ever thought they would," he said.
Less than two decades ago, Inouye
said the slow process of mailing
correspondence produced mistakes in
Congress.
"Washington did not have access to
your knowledge, your experience," he
said. "Fifteen years ago, Washington
was distant. Sincere, but ill-informed
people would make decisions that
involved your daily lives.
' 'You have found the ways to make
your voices heard. Today, the nation's
capital is no longer a distant land.
You have become, as you were in the
early days of this nation, a force to be
reckoned with and, believe me,
nobody takes you for granted any
more," he said.
Eurocentric concepts harm Native people/ Page 5
Environmental lab tour led by Native American scientists/ Page 6
Red Lake Fisheries to pay $1,644,626.00 in fish bonuses/ Page 4
Press wishes good luck to Mel at Lac du Flambeau/ Page 4
Ignoring the negative prevents positive/ Page 4
Red Lake: How the landscape happened/ Pages 1 & 5
Voice of the Anishinabeg
i
Fifty Cents
Called tO ACCOUnt Hit by a barrage of potentially costly
malpractice litigation, CPA firms are working to change laws.
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All
Founded in 19BB Volume 5 Issue 23 December 3, 1993
1
A weekly
Copyright, The Ophwre
1993
By Gafl Marks Jarvis
Pioneer Press Staff Writer
It's enough to make CPAs quake at their
computers. Nearly 2,000 past and present
partners in the Deloitte & Touche certified
public accounting firm could be forced to
come up with millions of dollars from their
ownpockets to pay for the $ 1 billion failure
of Minneapolis-based Midwest Federal
Savings and Loan.
The Resolution Trust'Corporation-the
federal agency dealing with S&L carnage-
-is trying to sue the partners for work done
sevenyearsagobyacoupleofauditorsfrom
the Minneapolis office of Connecticut-
basedDeloitte&Touche. Thegovernment
claims tfiat iftheauditorsfromDeloitte had
been doing their job right in 1985 and
1986, S&L regulators would have known
Midwest Federal was insolvent and could
have stepped in soon enough to save taxpayers from the financial mess.
Someone other than taxpayers should
pay for the disaster, the RTC reasons.
Among its nominees: the CPA partners
who reaped financial benefit from the
audits-even those who never knew about
the audits, never set foot in their firm's
Minneapolis office, and never heard of
Mdwest Federal or Hal Greenwood, its
former chairman who now is imprisoned
for fraud.
The suit is an accountant's worst nightmare. And it comes at a time when the
accounting profession already is panicky
about an unprecedented number of malpractice suits, not only by the RTCbut also
by plaintiffs who claim they were hurt by
securities fraud in other cases. As a result
ofallthe litigation, CPAsareattemptingto
get laws changed in various ways on the
federal and state levels, soboth accounting
firms andtheirpartners will belessvulnerable than they have been.
Current claims against the nation's six
largest accountingfirms, known as theBig
Six, total about $30 billion, according to
inforrnationthefirmsprovidedtotheSecu-
ritiesandExchangeCommissionrecently.
That is more than 20 times the permanent
capital available within the firms, they
said The six are Arthur Andersen, Coo-
pers&Lybrand,Deloitte&Touche, Ernst
&Young,KPMGPeatMarwickandPrice
Waterhouse.
If courts hearing the various cases should
grant all those claims, the average Big Six
partner could face a $3.8 million personal
hit, the CPA firms said While the liability
issue affects only partners, that is no small
number in big firms. There are 7,864
partners in the Big Six, with an average
salary of $212,000. At stake for those
subjecttosuitsarelifesavings, homes, cars,
kids' college educations and retirement
funds.
Many accountants have been taking action to protect their assets. The big joke in
the profession right now is that divorce is
out of the question for CPAs because
everything is in their spouses' names, says
Tom Sherman, a partner in Coopers &
Lybrand Butthegrowingwaveoflawsuits
is no laughing matter to accounting firms.
Sherman is leading a group ofMinnesota
Account/See Page 3
■M
Red Lake: How the landscape happened
By Robert C. Melchoir
Analysis of water well log data has
given us a reasonable picture ofthe most
recent glaciations that affected the Red
Lake region. Estimates of the overall
number of glaciations that covered the
area during the ice ages suggest as many
as 16 separate ice sheets. We have little
information about the earlier ones however, because their deposits have often
been eroded away, are buried under
more recent deposits and because there
are few well borings which penetrate
the entire thickness of glacial material.
The deposits ofthe most recent glaciations, coveringaperiodof the last 75,000
years orso are more accessible. They are
either exposed at the surface, or are within
range of normal water well drilling.
To gain an insight as to what these
deposits mean, it is useful to examine
how a glacier erodes, transports, and
deposits rock debris. Figure 1 shows a
glacier in equilibrium. The ice is melting back at its terminus at the same rate
as newiceflows in to replace it. Glaciers
in thi s condition show no net movement
either forward orback. Because melting
thins the ice near the margin, the pressure on the basal layers near the terminus is reduced and flow caused by deformation is slower in this region.
Faster flowing ice from upstream in
the thicker parts ofthe glacier is thrust
over the slower ice near the front. Rock
debris trapped in the ice rides up to the
surface of the glacier along fracture
planes and is released by seasonal melting. Over the years, melted out debris
can accumulate to considerable thicknesses on the top ofthe glacier as thrust
ing near the terminus continues. This
debris is called ablation moraine and is
common on most glaciers whose termini are in temperate climates. The modern Tailbacks glacier in Alaska for example, has a surface covering of ablation moraine thick enough to support a
spruce forest over 200 years old.
Because of seasonal melting on the
ice surface, meltwater streams erode
and carry some ofthe ablation moraine
rock debris to the front ofthe ice where
it is deposited as outwash. Otherparts of
the ablation moraine slump and slide
down the ice's surface to accumulate as
a ridge at the margin ofthe ice called a
terminal moraine. These types of deposits
have meltwater involved in their deposi-
Landscape/See Page 5
Photos by Denise Dearly
A Delegation of native people (in Washington, D.C.) prayed for the next 500 years and the seventh generation.
Some ofthe people present included Thomas Bcnyaca, Dr. Anne Medicine, Arvol & Carol Looking Horse, and
Denise Dearly.
Hennepin County offers 'peanuts' for new
Native American detox center
Congress passes courts bill
Reprinted with permissionfrom: Indian
Country Today
By Bunty Anquoe
WASHINGTON- Legislation to
strengthen and increase funding for
financially- strapped tribal courts has
finallypassedCongress. TheHouseand
Senate approved a bill Saturday that
elevates the current BIA tribal courts
program to a top-level" Office ofTribal
Justice Suport" that would administer
$50 million per year in base funding for
the approximately 170 tribal courts.
The measure now awaits President
Clenton's signature to become law. Sen.
John McCain, R- Ariz., a primary
sponsor ofthe bill, said he was pleased
Congress and tribal governments have
finally been able to reach agreement on
the legislation.
" It has been nearley six years since the
Committee on Indian Affairs began the
process of developing legislation to assist
Indian tribal governments in the
development and operation of justice
systems," he said " Having encountered
great difficulty in reaching a consensus
withboth theHouseandtribal governments,
I'm pleased to have finally resolved all
differences and produced a bill which
moves the federal government and tribal
governments in the right direction."
The newly-created courts office would
provide up to $7 million in training and
technical assistance each year, conduct
a tribal justice system needs survey and
direct research and studies of tribal
judicial operations.
It would also serve as an information
clearinghouse that would provide
infoemation on tribal codes and court
decisions.
The bill authorizes $50 million in
base support funding for the next six
years that could be used for expenses
such as personnel salaries, reporting,
records management, acquisition of law
libraries, computer research, revision of
tribal codes and rules of procedures and
facilities construction or renovation.
The bill also alows tribes the option of
eithercontractingdirecUywiththecourts
office or participating in a tribal judicial
conference which would then contract
with the BIA.
Two or more tribes could form a
judicial conference and could receive up
to $500,000 per yearfor administration
costs. The legislation does not limit the
number of conferences.
Ajudicial conference would aid tribes
in developing tribal court operations
and could assume any or all ofthe duties
ofthe BIAtribal courts office at tribal
discretion. Under the bill, the Interior
Secretary would treat such conferences
as tribal organizations and al locate grants
or enter into contracts with them as a
means of direct assistance.
In previous congressional hearings,
tribal leaders have supported the
voluntary nature of the judicial
conferences idea. conference
membership is up to each tribe.
Tribal leaders and court judges have
said that Indian justice systems are
plagued by insufficient fimding and are
thus unable to cope with increased case
loads and this lack of resources, they
say, make it dificult to secure and retain
judges and other court personnel.
"It's really going to benefit tribal
courts," she said, "we've always had our
hands tied every year worrying about
whether there'll be funding for us or
not."
In 1993, the BIA Branch of Judicial
Services had a $ 12.9 million operating
budget
An amendment attached to the Senate
version ofthe bill by Sen. Slade Gorton,
R-Wash., to require a one-year
congressional study on federal court
review of tribal court decisions was
dropped. The senator has been a vocal
critic of tribal court authority under the
1968 Indian Civil Rights Act.
The U.S. Comission on Civil Rights
issued a report in 1991 detailing
problems with tribal court enforcement
of the Indian Civil Rights Act but
attributed difficulties to "the failure of
the United States to provide proper
funding for tribal judicial systems."
Sen. McCain said the "overdue"
legislation "finally sets tribal and federal
governments on the right course."
By Gary Blair
For nearly a year now there has been
talk in the Minneapolis Native American community about plans for an
"Indian" operated and controlled
detoxification center. Interest for such
a facility was generated by reports and
most recently the findings of a state
investigation into client abuse that
forced the closing of Hennepin
county's old detox center over a year
ago.
Within weeks of their detox closing,
county officials were quick to try and
find a way to divert the criticism from
the Indian community about the client
abuse. It was at this point that the
county approached the New Visions
Chemical Dependency Treatment Program for Native Americans and asked
if they were interested in the idea of
operating an Indian detox facility.
The offer wasn't anything new. Over
ten years ago, New Visions used to
operate the old south side detox center
that closed when the county moved
most of their detox services to the
1800 Chicago Avenue site.
For the most part, New Visions'
board of directors has remained silent
about their plans to open such a facility. In fact, only until recently had
New Visions been willing to admit
that they had been meeting with county officials. However, the PRESS has
learned that the county's offer for
such a facility has now fallen short
and may have caused another negative turn of events for Native Americans in need of chemical dependency
services in Minneapolis.
Joe Estrada, a board member for
New Visions, told the PRESS this
week,' 'Gary, I want you to look at the
contract they're offering us. They're
trying to give us 'peanuts' to operate a
detox.'' New Visions had been planning to hold a community meeting to
announce the opening ofthe new Indian detox center, but their efforts to
put together a secret deal with Hennepin County has now turned into an
embarassment. Instead, they plan to
hold a community meeting soon to
discuss the problems they now face
with the funding recently offered by
the county.
Members of the Native American
Coalition for Civil Rights (NACCR),
a group formed to address the detox
client abuse, had earlier cautioned
that something like this might happen
if New Visons tried such a move as
this.
When Hennepin County first approached New Visions with their offer
for the Indian operated detox, those
involved in addressing the abuse issue
were angered when they learned that
the county's proposal did not include
any offer of accountability for the
abuse Some vowed to have no further
involvement with the county until the
client abuse reports were fully addressed and charges were brought.
Within days people who had aligned
themselves with the efforts ofNACCR
started to pull away from the organi-
DetOX/ See Page 7
St. Croix Chippewa open new group home
HERTEL, Wis. -The St. Croix Tribe
Group Home in Hertel, Wisconsin,
officially opened on Wednesday, November 17, with an Open House hosted by the staff. Tribal leaders called
the opening of the group home a
cause for celebration and a new beginning for the tribe.
The Ojibway name for the Group
Home is "Abinooji Wakaigan" meaning "New Beginnings". According to
Bob Coombs, Manager of Clinical Services for the home. "Our future as a
people depends upon the preservation
of our cultural heritage. The future belongs to our children."
The St. Croix Tribe Group Home is an
eight bed Group Foster Care for Children facility. It provides a safe environment for boys and girls in crisis, while
offering them a full range of cultural/
spiritual care and activities, educational testing and tutoring, recreational activities, family counseling services and
vocational/occupational counseling. All
i
staff of the home are licensed and certi-
fiedchildcaretechnicians. "Thequality
of our staff is second to none." says Ron
Knobbe, Executive Director.
The small size of the new home is a plus,
according to Knobbe. "Having a small
number of residents permits us to work
individually with each of them That way
nobody gets lost in the shuffle."
Both Native American and non-Native American children are eligible to
receive care at the St. Croix Tribe Home.
"Learning each other'scultural heritage
goes a long way toward developing a
deep respect for cultural diversity," says
Knobbe. "Many of the crises young
tribal members experience arise because ofa lack of understanding among
cultures." Learning to celebrate life in
each individual is the basis of the entire
program at the St. Croix Tribe Group
Home, Knobbe asserts."
Cooperation among five diverse enti-
ties-the Bureau oflndian Affairs (BIA),
the Indian Health Service (IHS), the St.
I
Croix ChippewaofWisconsin,the State
of Wisconsin and the State of Wisconsin Counties Social Services Department-was necessary for the home to
become a reality. Further cooperation
between the tribe and government agencies will be ongoing: the home is officially
sponsored by the SL Croix Tribal Council
and the SL Croix Social Services Department/Family Resource Center.
The opening of the St. Croix Tribe
Group Home reflects the St. Croix
Chippewas' optimism about the future.
"Our children are tomorrow's leaders.
The new Group Home is an investment
in the future of all children," says Bob
Coombs. "Our chi ldren are our real new
beginning."
The St. Croix Tribe Group Home is
located next to the St. Croix Tribal
Headquarters, one mile west of Hertel,
Wisconsin, on Wisconsin State Highway 70. For more information call
Ron Knobbe, Executive Director, at
715-349-7711.